Libraries Are The Cultural Center Of Town

 For some people, the most meaningful place in town is the family dinner table. For some, it's church. For some, it's the local restaurant or bar or rec center. But for many, it's the local library.

On Friday I spoke at one of the few libraries in the area I haven't visited in the past.

Pollock Pines is a foothill town of 6000 people. It sits along Highway 50 on a ridge at 4000 feet of elevation and is approximately halfway between Sacramento and Lake Tahoe.

The library is quite small, a single good-sized room filled with well-organized bookcases, and an impressive collection of books. I met several of the staff, all book lovers of course! They were kind and fun and focused on the value of books. Clearly, the town is in good hands with these purveyors of information resources.

They brought in enough chairs to seat more than 30 people, all of whom were engaged, polite, and interested not just in my books, but in the process of writing. They had many thoughtful questions,  and kept me speaking for an hour. We had a great time.

As I drove away, I once again had the very strong sense that a local library is the cultural center of any town, a magnet for people who desire information as well as for people who want to get to know others who are very intelligent and interested in a larger world. These are not people who spend all day watching TV. They are readers, well-spoken, well-traveled, well-educated.

If you move to any new community or simply visit a new community for any length of time, remember to stop by the local library. There you will find people who, like yourself, value the best that people have to offer.

In many respects, the best part of being a writer is meeting library patrons.

My thanks to Pollock Pines Library and all other libraries.

Hiking Surprise

 Near the highway up to Echo Summit is Osgood Lake (formerly Osgood Swamp but then beavers came and did their thing). It was named for Nehemiah Osgood, who built a toll house nearby back in 1859 to collect funds to maintain the road up and over Echo Summit.

 I was hiking around Osgood yesterday and heard water flowing. Looking up the mountain to the west is a 100-foot-tall waterfall. In the land of big waterfalls, all of which are gushing, this one is a delicate delight, cascading down the mountain. If I were to go 1000 feet up, I'd hit Echo Lake, which, at 7400 feet, is no doubt still frozen.

If you don't pause and look carefully, you'll miss the falls.

Tahoe Bird Festival

 Coming Saturday, June 24th is the Lake Tahoe Bird Festival at the Taylor Creek Visitor Center just north of Camp Richardson near South Lake Tahoe. It runs from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Tahoe has many, many impressive birds, and this event will showcase them.

Come on up the mountain and check it out!

Here is the link for more information:

https://www.tinsweb.org/upcoming-events/kgyj86mkxosi66nb35422hhxfs5d17-ttjym

The Ultimate Snowmelt, River Rafting Closure Irony

 Maybe I've got this wrong, but from what I understand, rafting on the Truckee River from Tahoe City to Alpine Meadows is canceled until August despite having as much water as we've ever had. Why? Because the water will be temporarily too low for rafting.

Apparently, the water deciders are looking at the big picture and they're worried that all the snowmelt running into the Tahoe Basin is putting downstream reservoirs and communities (like Reno!) at risk. 

So they've decided to limit what flows out of Lake Tahoe for the next two months. This will sadden many, many people who come to North Lake Tahoe for rafting. 

However, I understand. I once stood on the shore of the Truckee River in Reno as the river was about to rise over the edge and flood downtown Reno. The river was a roaring, gushing, whitewater torrent carrying water from Lake Tahoe. Although I was safe, and it would have been easy to run up a nearby slope if the river quickly rose even higher, it was actually kind of scary to see that much water barely contained by the river banks.

When people conceive of their building projects and activities near slow-flowing streams, it's hard to imagine those little trickles turning into deadly, monster flows. 

These situations even catch campers unaware. Countless people have set up a peaceful campsite near a nice little stream in the woods without thinking that the warm afternoon temperatures are melting huge quantities of snow upstream. Those campers sometimes crawl into their sleeping bags and tents, lulled to sleep by the pleasant sound of the creek. But the lag time with melting snow in the afternoon is often such that the new meltwater collects in an increasing gusher of water that  reaches peak flow after midnight. Those campers are asleep when the creek rises to engulf their campsite and tent in icewater and carry them all downstream at 2 a.m.

So we'll be patient and wait until August. The water deciders will open the dam then.